The Chinese New Year holiday has brought new hope for recovery for Chinese cinema operators, setting the stage for a more robust industry, following a tough year hit by COVID-19.
Last week (February 15 to 21) saw another record-breaking weekly box office performance, with ticket sales topping 5.56 billion yuan ($860 million), a 20 percent jump from the week before, data from online ticketing platform Maoyan showed on Monday.
Time travel comedy and tearjerker "Hi, Mom" contributed to more than half of the total revenue last week, overtaking "Detective Chinatown 3" that topped the festive season's pre-sale charts and the list of highest grossing movies during the February 8-14 week.
A screenshot of the weekly box office charts on the Chinese mainland during the seventh week of 2021 from February 15 to 21. /Maoyan
"Hi, Mom": Buzz generates box office success
Directed by comedian-turned-filmmaker Jia Ling, "Hi, Mom" tells a mother-daughter story based on the director's own life. Jia's mother Li Huanying passed away in an accident shortly after Li started college, and the movie pays tribute to her late mother.
Fresh college student Jia Xiaoling (played by Jia Ling) travels back to the 1980s and meets the younger version of her late mother. The impossible encounter calls for a do-over and Jia, regretting not bonding enough with her parent when she was alive, tries to rewrite her story with the woman who gave birth to her.
Starring comedians Jia Ling, Zhang Xiaofei and Shen Teng, the movie struck a chord with moviegoers for the emotional roller-coaster it took them on.
The movie scored 8.1 out of 10 points on Douban, a Chinese film review website similar to Rotten Tomatoes.
Chinese comedian and actress Zhang Xiaofei (L) and director of movie "Hi, Mom" Jia Ling attend a movie roadshow in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, February 22, 2021. /CFP
New milestone for 'Hi, Mom' and 'Detective Chinatown 3'
As of Tuesday morning, "Hi, Mom" has raked in $648 million and "Detective Chinatown 3" fetched $631 million, becoming the fifth and sixth top grossing movies of all time in the Chinese film market, according to Maoyan. Both movies have crossed the $600-million mark in just 10 days after their release on February 12.
"Hi, Mom" is projected to earn $811 million in the box office, Maoyan predicted. If estimates were true, the film would overtake such record-breaking movies as Marvel's blockbuster "Avengers: Endgame" ($658 million), domestic sci-fi film "The Wandering Earth" ($724 million) and animated feature film "Ne Zha" ($778 million), snatching second place on the list of biggest box office hits of all time in China.
Meanwhile, "Detective Chinatown 3" is carving out a spot for itself on the international scene, having been released in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Cambodia.
As of February 18, the movie has taken in over $443,000 in Australia, becoming the most popular Chinese-language film in the country during the Spring Festival holiday, according to the movie's official account on Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like platform.
Starring Chinese actors Wang Baoqiang and Liu Haoran, the movie is the third installment of the "Detective Chinatown" franchise, directed by Chinese actor and filmmaker Chen Sicheng. The film is also slated for release in Malaysia and Indonesia next week.
Read more: Graphics: Big rebound at Chinese New Year box office